Category: Linked

The Times likes Bloomberg’s latest budget, and rightly so. Unlike his predecessor, this Mayor is not leaving his successor with a fiasco. The proposed budget attempts to live within the means of the City, which is sure to upset many in the short term but benefit the city in the long term.

One reason that I have always liked Bloomberg was his willingness to put forward a draconian budget in his first year. It was necessary, given the recession at the time (in retrospect a mild one) and the economic fallout and uncertainty following 11 September. That year of budgetary pain (along with a string of external factors) helped to put the City in the position to enjoy five years or so of healthy budget growth.

Contrast the Bloomberg approach with that of the national Republican party (remember Bush’s trifecta?), and the notion of Republican fiscal responsibility is quickly exposed for the joke it is.

Apropos of the Grand Street retail renaissance I discussed a week or two ago, Brownstoner has started a new renovation blog. This one covers the owners of Bird, who have rented a 2,500 space at 203 Grand Street. So now everyone can follow along as the latest Grand Street success story takes shape.

The Pentagon’s accounting system runs on COBOL, “the ancient Sumerian of computer languages”. COBOL was being taught when I took comp sci 25 years ago, and it was pretty much “ancient Sumerian” back then.

Worse than the outdated computer languages is the Byzantine accountability in the accounting process:

The dysfunction stems in part from the traditional independence of the military branches. Over several decades, they have cobbled together separate processes for identical functions, resulting in the uncontrolled growth of more than 4,000 accounting, financial, and inventory systems. […] The department’s primary system for handling weapons contracts and payments dates from 1958; a costly attempt to replace it was abandoned in 2002 as a failure. The Army’s notoriously inaccurate main accounting system was created in 1966.

Since McCain’s budget plan long on tax cuts but his proposed “spending cuts are small and vague“, perhaps he could start his spending cuts here?

Headline translated: “it took me seven years to fuck up the economy this badly – do you think I can just wave a wand and make it all better?”

(Actually, he really did say “If there was a magic wand to wave, I’d be waving it, of course […] But there is no magic wand to wave right now. It took us a while to get to this fix.”)

David Yassky has an opinion piece in today’s Post that proposes some measures to bring transparency to the Council’s earmark process (and perhaps even the City’s budget process).

Meanwhile, more and more of his colleagues are being caught up in the muck.

[FYI, the link above to Yassky’s campaign site (he’s running for Comptroller); the original Post op-ed is here (in its much less readable format).]

In today’s Times, a description of the concerted and coordinated effort that went into the resignation of Debbie Amontaser from the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Boerum Hill. Most interesting is the description of conservative groups that are targeting “law-abiding Muslim-Americans” who the conservatives see as “imposing their religious values in the public domain”.

Among the examples cited? “Municipal pools […] that have adopted female-only hours to accommodate Muslim women.”

Anyone been to Metropolitan Pool?

Clinton has joined McCain in calling for a summer-long suspension of the federal excise tax on gasoline. Obama says he won’t support this – good for him. It was a stupid idea when McCain proposed it weeks ago, and its still a stupid idea.

Suspending the gas tax would lower the cost of gasoline less than 20¢ a gallon – about 7% at current prices. Sounds good, huh? But do the math, and you figure out that it would save the average consumer $30.00 over the course of the whole summer. So the savings to the consumer is minimal, and would only encourage increased fuel consumption. On the flip side, a summer tax holiday is estimated to cost the federal government $9 billion. Since most of that money gets passed on to the states for highway construction projects, the cost would really be borne by the states. Estimates are that the holiday could result in the loss of up to 300,000 highway construction jobs, and cause the cancellation of much-needed infrastructure upgrades.

All that to save half a tank of gas?

Does anyone else remember when Bill Clinton was the voice of fiscal responsibility? His tax hikes (“the largest in history, oh my!) resulted in a balanced budget and 8 years of prosperity. How strange that Obama seems to be the only one willing to take up that mantle.

Gowanus Lounge has moved away from Blogger and set up with a newly designed site with their very own domain. In addition to the new domain name (be sure to update your feed reader), the site now boasts a masthead full of correspondents and photographers (most of whom we have all come to know over the past two years). Oh, and advertising too.

I’ll reserve comment on the redesign until I’ve had a chance to see it in action. I will miss the (energy-saving?) black background of the old site, but not the Blogger infrastructure (which always seemed to choke Firefox, but was fine on Safari).

Oh, and happy anniversary, Robert. It is pretty amazing to think that GL did not exist two years ago. In that time, GL has become the leading source for much of Brooklyn’s news (and a constant source of material for less of-the-moment news venues).

Actually, the back of the building is nowhere near the horror show that is the front. Still, a bit heavy handed on the shrubbery.

Apparently, the quality of condominium construction in NYC leaves something to be desired. Apparently, the Attorney General is kind of lax on enforcement, so owners are having to litigate on their own.

Oh, and apparently, the problem is particularly bad in Brooklyn:

Attorneys also said many complaints are surfacing in Brooklyn, where the pace of development has accelerated, especially in newly rezoned areas.

What a surprise.